Mist
Chapter 1
“El fuego persiguió el agua, pero puede solamente ser dotado con la niebla que se deja detrás.”
~Ra Hunter *
“Sokka? ... Sokka I hear something....” the smaller monk with a light
blue arrow across his forebrow asked quietly with a tinge of fear
hinting in his voice.
“Aang? ...Oh my god, what time is it?” Sokka, the Southern Water Tribe
male asked rubbing his eyes, and sat up in a sleepy disbelief.
“I heard something...in the bushes Sokka. I can’t find Katara...” Aang whimpered out almost pathetically.
The only time that Sokka had ever heard The Avatar speak like that with
so little confidence was when Katara, or one of his good friends were
in a sizeable amount of trouble. If so, then what was happening? Sokka
forced himself out of the sleepy habitat of his bag and into the cold
early morning that Aang had awakened upon him.
“Mmmph...” Sokka moaned out, and stretched. As he did so, he leaned
back, and lifted his wrists into the air so that the mornings cricks
could be popped. Stretching his neck from side to side, he wondered
when he had become so stiff in the mornings. It was probably from all
the working out from saving The Avatar...being saved by The
Avatar...and running away from enemies.
As Sokka heard a crick in his back, he also heard a small break in a
branch from his left. Swinging his ocean colored eyes over to the area
he had heard the noise, he carefully picked up his club with the large
rock attached, and made his way to the spot. Throwing his boomerang
into the bushes, he stepped into the clearing and tried to spot any
enemies of any sort. As Sokka reached up to catch his boomerang he
heard a step behind him. As the teenage boy swung around to face his
opponent, a crashing light bloomed before his eyes milliseconds before
the pain of a thousands suns pierced his skull.
As he thumped to the ground, feeling blood pour from his scalp, Sokka saw Firebender boots, and a ruthless chuckle.
“Save this one. He’ll be of some use....”
Then Sokka saw nothing, but the darkness of forced sleep.
~*~
“We should kill him...”
Sokka groaned, and lifted his head as the world that was currently fuzzy, and spinning, tilted jeeringly.
“No, I want to interrogate him...”
Sokka moaned as he clutched his head, and looked up to the voices speaking as he had been falling over.
“Yes my prince...if it is your command...” the older voice sighed, and gave in.
“Thank you...” the younger voice relayed to the other.
Sokka looked to his fingers as they were met by a sticky substance on
the back of his head. He groaned in self pity as he saw the sticky
stuff had been blood that had clotted at the base of his skull.
“Goddamn it...” he muttered, and looked up in a daze as the prison bars were yanked open with a resounding bang.
~*~
Zuko sneered as he neared the prison cell, and looked down at the man,
still mostly boy that he had caught instead of The Avatar. Zuko’s good
eye widened slightly as the young man’s jacket had been taken away in
case of weapons, and he could see the definition of scars, and old
battle marks that lined the body.
It seemed that the peasant of the South Water Tribe did actually pull
his weight from time to time. The definition of the pectoral muscles
showed his strength in lifting, throwing, and catching objects. It
seemed that the legs were also smoothly muscled as he flexed like a cat
trying to ease the open wounds. His hair was a dark brown, almost black
color that seemed to be cut in a way to represent some battle look.
Zuko sighed as he ran a hand over his own small war hair style thinking
of why, and how he had to shave his own head so that the hair would not
grow back for many years. He had to burn of his own hair, and cut away
the remainder with a sword he had cut an enemy down with. The South
Water Tribe probably had some barbaric ritual in the hair being frozen,
and then pulled from the scalp itself. Disgusting peasants, they should
die a long, and slow death.
Zuko threw open the doors of the prison cell which was hardly better
then a stall for his steeds of war. It had bits of dried grass in the
corners to portray some detail of comfort while leaving the prisoners
themselves a dying hope because it did absolutely nothing in the
slightest. The bars were rusting, but their innocent look did not give
their true impression of strength. The strongest iron was what they are
made out of, so The Avatar would not escape so easily.
Zuko glared down to the boy, and watched him raise his head after
muttering some mundane curse. The blue eyes of the young man astounded
Zuko for a second. The contrast of tanned and scarred skin with brown
black hair made his eyes look as if cut from ice glaciers themselves.
“Up peasant...we need to speak.” Zuko ordered the blue eyed man, and turned on his heel.
If the other did not obey his order, he would be whipped until he would
walk with Prince Zuko on command. What fun it would be to turn this sad
little piece of flesh into a slave for the Prince. The right hand man
of The Avatar as Prince Zuko’s slave. The outcast using the second best
person as his filthy, and vermin ridden prisoner to obey his every
whim.
~*~
Sokka groaned again as the prince studied him from his uppity corner of
the world. He took the time to study the other male that seemed to have
captured him. The very thought made his blood boil, and he glared. As
the Ass-Prince studied his own self, Sokka felt his cheeks darken with
excess blood, and he glared harder at the prince.
Sokka immediately noticed the scar as he always did, but then forced
his gaze to the other eye. It was a surprise to see the honey gold
color staring back at him, and Sokka tore his gaze away in horror.
Making eye contact with the enemy. Perfect. Sokka looked to the
Ass-Prince again, and watched as the movements of the Firebender
perfectly relayed that of his position. It reeked of royalty, and
pompous behavior towards everyone.
Sokka looked down still, and saw that the Prince of Ass’s was actually
slimmer than the average warrior, but his lower legs, and lower parts
of his arms were more filled out, giving him a more mature, and
slightly regal look. Sokka studied the prince, and saw the shiny
leftover scars of burns, and was surprised to notice very few cut mark
scars, but mostly burns, and bruises. It seemed the Prince of Ass’s was
actually involved his work after all.
The South Water Bender tribesman looked back up to the Prince’s face,
and caught the glint of the ebony black hair. It was strange to him to
see hair on a Firebender; mostly their helmets hide such features, and
seeing the real thing was like out of a fairy story. Sokka took the
chance to mentally admire the tenacity that the Firebender Prince of
Ass’s had to chase The Avatar so far, and through so much just for fun.
Or was he some weird kind of stalker?
“Up peasant...”
‘Peasant? That’s not nice, asshole...’ Sokka privately thought, and sulked.
“We need to speak.”
‘Perfect, he’s going to want to torture information out of me. Not like
that’s not anything new, but I wish someone would just ask, and if I
said noooo they would leave me alone...Wishful thinking I guess...’
Sokka thought unhappily to himself, and winced as cramped muscles
spasmed in the rejection of moving from the long time lying positition.
“Mmmmmrrrr...” Sokka moaned in pain as he sat up panting from the rioting of his own body.
“UP!” Zuko growled angrily, and pulled the other South Water Tribesman up and against the wall in a shove.
“I’m up, god....” Sokka muttered in hatred.
Zuko pushed the handcuffed Sokka out of the cell so hard, Sokka had to
push out his left foot to catch his balance. As he did so, he felt a
crack in his knee cap, and he felt a wash of pain overtake him.
“FUCK!” Sokka shouted out, and winced.
“Shut up, you disgusting thing...” Zuko complained to him, and pushed him onward.
“Up yours...” Sokka muttered, but quietly walked with a limp down the hallway.
“Be quiet, if you’re not, I shall let the crew look over you. With your
hair down, you could almost be mistaken to be female. We’ve not had the
pleasure of landing at a bar in quite a while...” Zuko leered to Sokka
in a grin that sent shivers of disgust, and hatred through Sokka.
“Whatever...” Sokka grumbled out, and felt his leg start to wobble underneath him as if he was going to fall.
Zuko led the captured boy to the chamber where all prisoners were
‘interviewed’ about various reasons. They varied through information on
the Firebender’s enemies, and The Avatar himself such was as this boy’s
reason for being here. Prince Zuko slapped Sokka into the wooden cuffs
meant to hold the person at a way that made them not quite leaning, and
not quite standing to make their legs tired. If the person tried to let
their legs fall out from underneath them, they would start to choke on
themselves as the wood, and metal cut into their necks. It was a very
uncomfortable holder.
Sokka winced as his shoulder’s were placed into the wooden contraption,
and he coughed. It seemed he was bruised heavily there, and the fingers
that pushed him into that position hurt incredibly. It felt like he
was purposely trying to cause him discomfort. It wasn’t to unthinkable
due to the fact that this was an interrogation session as well as a
torture session. Who would care if he was hurt in the process of being
interviewed for information about The Avatar.
Speaking of Aang, where were Katara, and the younger monk? Shouldn’t
they be looking for him in the least, or maybe causing some discomfort
for the Firebender nation to get him back? Sokka felt his heart drop
slightly at the thought that they had just gone on without him. It was
the smart thing to do, so they wouldn’t get caught but it still felt
like he was dispensable. Sokka was slapped sharply into reality as the
Prince slapped him across the right cheek.
“Pay attention! I asked you a question!” the Prince angrily muttered out to the peasant.
Sokka ran his tongue over the inside of his cheek as he felt the
droplets of blood seep onto the muscle. He winced as Sokka realized
that the inside of his mouth had been cut due to his own teeth. It
sucked to be slapped. Girls just made it bruise, but it seemed that men
could make you bleed.
“What do you want again?” Sokka replied in an almost bored voice that didn’t portray his real panic on the inside.
He’d already been hurt enough as it was by the attack on his skull, and the rest of his body bruised and cut up.
“I asked, ‘Where is The Fucking Avatar!?’” Zuko repeated, his fists
starting to waver behind the heat that was emitting from them.
“I don’t know! I didn’t even know where we were when you captured me! How should I know?!” Sokka replied angrily.
“Don’t play games with me...” Zuko hissed out to the Water Tribesman.
“I don’t know! Seriously!” Sokka yelled out.
“Don’t lie!” Zuko exclaimed in hate, and lashed out with a fist to Sokka’s face.
The boy flinched, and squeezed his eyes shut waiting for the burning
force of the fire from the Firebender Prince in front of him. As he
slowly opened his eyes, he gulped as the fist in front of him was
flaming, but not touching him.
“I’m giving you one last warning. You will tell me where he is, or
where he’ll be heading!” Zuko growled out, his patience thinning.
“What if I actually don’t know!?” Sokka yelled out, fearful for the aforementioned pain.
“Then you well tell me where you were headed with him...” Zuko snarled to Sokka.
“We were going to the Earth Kingdom of Sabachthani*. They might still be heading there...” Sokka grumbled out in hate.
“We’ll see...” Prince Zuko muttered out, and went to the wall.
From that wall, he pulled out a whip, and showed it to Sokka. It was
covered with bits of glass, nails, thorns, and other artifacts designed
to rip the skin when whipped. It had pieces of leather coming from the
main hold to rip into different parts of the body at the same time. The
whip seemed to be also stained with a dark substance that seemed to
chunk in different places unnaturally.
“If you are lying to me. You will be whipped with this twenty-five times."
1* “The fire persecuted the water, but it could only be equaled by the fog that was left behind."
2* Hebrew word meaning, “Forsaken”
